Here is a story many gardeners know too well. You spend a cold afternoon in October planting fifty tulip bulbs, pat the soil down, feel pretty good about the spring to come. A week later you walk out and the bed looks like someone went through it with a spoon. Holes everywhere, a few bulb skins lying around, and a squirrel sitting on the fence looking very pleased with itself.
It is annoying, but it is also fixable. You do not need traps or fancy gadgets. You need a roll of wire and a bit of planning.
Why squirrels dig up your bulbs
Squirrels are not always hunting for bulbs. Fall is the season when they bury nuts for winter, and freshly turned soil is basically a sign saying “dig here”. Once they are already poking around and they smell a tulip bulb, they will happily eat it or carry it off. Tulips and crocuses are their favorites. That is why a freshly planted bed gets raided so fast.
Start with the right timing
Plant your bulbs later in fall, once the soil has cooled off, roughly when nights are regularly cold but the ground is not frozen yet. Squirrels are busiest earlier in the season, and bulbs planted late have less time to be dug up before winter locks everything down. Planting too early also risks the bulbs starting to sprout before the cold, which is its own problem.
Plant them properly
Dig down about six to eight inches for tulips, deeper than most people expect. Place the bulbs with the pointed end facing up and a few inches between them. A bulb planter makes this a lot faster if you have a lot to do. Cover them with soil and water well so the ground settles.
One small thing that makes a big difference: clean up afterwards. Pick up any papery skins, loose bulbs or fragments from the surface, since the smell can attract squirrels. And skip the bone meal, it smells great to animals and often invites digging.
The wire trick that actually works
This is the part that saves your tulips. Buy a roll of chicken wire with openings of about an inch, or a bit less. Cut a piece a little larger than your planting area using a pair of tin snips, and wear gloves because the cut ends are sharp.
